Soderbergh: Spielberg should have picked Durbin to play Lincoln

Last November, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) shot a scene in Chicago for Steven Soderbergh’s new film “Contagion,” which is due to open next week. Days before the shoot, his office issued a tongue-in-cheek statement from Durbin about his Hollywood debut: “All those hours on C-SPAN have prepared me for this historic moment in my life, but I’m still a little nervous. All I can think of is going on too long with the thank you list in my Oscar acceptance speech.”

Well, no word yet on how much screen-time Durbin gets (if you look closely at the trailer you can see a wide shot of him swearing in a witness) or if his performance is Oscar-worthy if he's in the film, but as for his potential as an actor, you might be interested to know he apparently gets a thumbs up from director Soderbergh.

In a statement issued to NBC News shortly after Durbin filmed the scene (and until now unpublished), Soderbergh explained it this way: “Why Steven Spielberg chose Daniel Day Lewis to play Lincoln over Senator Durbin is a complete mystery to me.”